Palpatine- Our Thriller Opening Sequence

Looking back at your preliminary task, what do you feel you have learnt in the progression from it to the full product?

Looking back at my preliminary task I understood what needed to be done to construct a media product, in my case a thriller film opening sequence called 'Palpatine'.  The prelim task demanded that I understood the basics of shot types. Using these techniques in an in-camera exercise task using a Sony NX5, my group and I then edited together the shots taken which helped me understand the need for continuity. By using the Adobe Premiere Pro software, this provided me with the essential knowledge, practice and understanding of how my thriller opening sequence should be constructed. From the early days of pre-production I produced a storyboard which reflected this. Overall what I learnt from this process is how to successfully make a film opening sequence.

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What have you learnt about technologies from the process of constructing this product?

How did you attract/addresse your audience?

What pleasures can your audience take from opening sequence? 

I believe that the audience would enjoy the violence in our opening sequence and the twist at the end which reveals that the character is in fact harming himself. The AMBIGUITY of our opening sequence means that the audience is left to try and understand what is happening and why.


What genre and subgenre is your film under? 

Our film falls under the category THRILLERS, specifically PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLERS. 

Definition from Google

How have you attracted audiences through the use of: 

Editing- Our editing is what leaves the audience with a sense of mystery. The jump cuts and pace of our opening sequence means that the audience aren't given time to figure out what's going on. This makes the audience want to keep watching as they want answers.

Music/Sound- The use of the interview on Carl Jung gives the film a fourth dimension which gives the audience more to think about. By going into the shadow perspective and the dark side of human nature the audience start considering the psychological issues which are being represented in this film and whether it applies to all human beings.

Image of Carl Jung

What were the key conventions that you used or challenged which appeal to the target audience?

By using a male protagonist and combing him with pure violence would appeal to a male orientated audience. Mix in psychological issues and you have a character which appeals to a wider audience of both genders, as it has been shown that females prefer watching films which have a more intellectual side and make them think. I have talked more about conventions of thrillers in the next blog post, where I discuss the conventions that we conformed to and those that we challenged in our media product.

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Target Audience

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What kind of media institution might distribute your product and why?

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How does your media product represent particular social groups?

Who were you attempting to target with the opening sequence?

Our target audience, as previously mentioned, is very versatile. Our aim is to have a variety of people watch our film and hopefully come out of it questioning society and people's intentions.

Which characters did you use?  Where these archetypal of the film genre?  What roles did they take in the film?

The main character in our film is a lower-middle class young man who works in a kitchen. I wouldn't say that this is an archetypal of thrillers, as majority of the protagonists in thrillers are either teenagers or middle-aged men. Our character fits right in between those two commonly used demographics.

What themes/ issues were represented in the film – did these reflect any particular ideologies – dominant or alternative?  Could these be linked to other examples from other films?

Our thriller is psychological and explores the idea that as humans we all have a dark side. We were heavily inspired by Carl Jung and his theory that the only real danger that exists is man himself, and that us humans are the origin of all evil. He suggested the shadow or "shadow aspect" ;(1) an unconscious aspect of the personality which the conscious ego does not identify in itself....it is largely negative. Films such as 'American Psycho' and ''Psycho' explore psychopathy, obviously to a much more intense extent but nevertheless are inspired by similiar ideologies as ours; that every human has something evil inside them and has the capability to inflict pain on others. 

Have you reinforced or challenged stereotypes in your opening sequence? 

I wouldn't say that we are reinforcing or challenging a stereotype, we are merely exposing human nature and the types of people who exist in our society that we are (largely) unaware of. The only aspect of our character that conforms to the stereotypes about mental unstable people is the violence and murderous qualities. It is commonly misjudged that all people with mental disorders are dangerous, and our thriller reinforces that stereotype. "Most news accounts portray people with mental illness as dangerous" (Wahl, 1995).

Overall, what social group have you represented?

As we only have one character in our opening sequence we are only representing one gender; young males. We have represented him as being violent and dangerous, which does conform the to the stereotype that most thriller films reinforce; that masculinity is seen through violence.
Our thriller also represents someone who suffers from a mental disorder and the self-harming thoughts that they may suffer, however we have challenged that slightly as our opening sequence shows him smiling about the pain that he is inflicting on himself.

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In what ways does your media product use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Firstly, what are conventions? Conventions are the generally accepted ways of doing something. Conventions can be used, supported, reiterated.
Our thriller 'Palpatine' develops the theme of men being the violent gender. Looking at articles I found that men commit more acts of violence than women. A study carried out by the US Department of Justice found that 75.6 percent of all offenders were male and only 20.1 percent were female which supports the statement that men are more violent than women. This video explains the reason why manhood is connected with dominance, power and violence and how the media has used this image of men for a very long time. 

There are a lot of films in the market which portray females as having psychological disorders...

Examples of films:

                 Girl,Interrupted

                 Fatal Attraction 

                   Blue Jasmine

                    Betty Blue

         A Streetcar Named Desire

However we have decided to focus on the films which have male protagonists who suffer from disorders, such as American Psycho and develop the idea that in fact men can be unstable too and that it can lead to violent thoughts.

In terms of following conventions of a thriller film there are many aspects of our opening sequence which does conform. For example there is a clear battle between good and evil, however instead of it being between two characters it's a battle within himself. Another convention of a thriller film is that they usually follow a storyline which is based on things that society fears most today i.e terror attacks. Mental disorders can still be considered taboo in todays society and is something that is rarely spoken about yet is feared just as much as other commonly talked about feared situations. Our thriller opens up questions about mental disorders and how it can affect a person's behaviour, attitudes and beliefs. In terms of characters a convention of thrillers is that the protagonist/antagonist is male, which is the case in our thriller. If we look at the filming of thrillers, the lighting is usually low-key and dim, which ours isn't as we have used a harsh, bright light. Furthermore the sound used is usually 'tension' music whereas ours is a warped speech by a psychologist. However our thriller does conform as it used quick, jump cuts and a montage of several different shots. We decided to do this as it increased the pace and means that the audience don't have time to properly understand what they have seen; making the opening sequence that much more exciting and intriguing. 

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Sources- 
http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/men-more-violent.htm

Short Video of the Editing Process

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Post Production

Titles & Sound

The title itself was easy enough to design and place. We opted to go for a simple black background with crisp white writing. We thought that the more simple, the better. The only struggle was deciding on the name of our thriller. Because our initial idea changed 'Rich Kids' no longer worked. Here is a brainstorm of the different names..

A lot of these names were inspired by Carl Jung and his theory of 'the shadow'; 

"Everyone carries a shadow," Jung wrote, "and the less it is embodied in the individual's conscious life, the blacker and denser it is." It may be (in part) one's link to more primitive animal instincts, which are superseded during early childhood by the conscious mind.

This relates well with our piece hence why we chose to use audio clips of a lecture on his theory of the acceptance of ourselves and others, aswell as an interview with Jung himself where he states that inside we are all evil in some way or another. We included diegetic noises such as the punches and kicks, which were made up of soundclips such as a can of dog food being emptied, a punching bag being hit, a baseball being smacked and footsteps walking in mud. These are all unconventional noises but when edited carefully and layered on top of each other they make very convincing punching noises.

The last thing left to do was watch our opening sequence carefully, and go through each section to ensure that the continuity and transition were smooth. All we have left to do is post our clip unto the Hurtwood Media Youtube Channel.

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